The Middle Europeans have done what the democratic world urged them to do: they have developed an independent politics. But increasingly, their dominant political sentiment is antithetical to, even contemptuous of, the liberal, pro-integrationist ideals of the European Union.

New Austrian Leader Kurz wants stronger borders and drastic reductions in immigration. He agrees that “several hundred people have made their way from Austria to fight and murder for the Islamic State … (there is) no place for radical thought and political Islam.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also has no children. British prime minister Theresa May has no children. Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni has no children. Holland's Mark Rutte has no children. Sweden's Stefan Lofven has no biological children. Luxembourg's Xavier Bettel has no children. Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon has no children. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, has no children.

A tiny minority of french women are giving birth to over 50% of the children every year. These women are either practicing Catholics or immigrant Muslims.

One of the benefits of parenthood is the daily confrontation with free will—a human nature. Parents may have their child's life, career, and happiness planned out, but a child has other ideas -constantly. Love, patience, teaching, negotiating, scolding—nurture—can help direct the child, but the overwhelming otherness of the child is undeniable. They are not blank slates upon whom the parent exercises his will.

Contemporary childless leaders, however ascendant they feel today, may be the last gasp of secularism. The future is won by those who show up, and only the religiously orthodox are having children.

Sweden’s murder rate has been relatively low over the years, but thanks to the migrant crisis, police are powerless in many areas across the country.

Last year 300 shootings occurred, 40 people were killed. The new year has begun with new launches. We see criminals with total lack of respect for human life, it’s a terrible development I’m determined to turn around,” he added.

“People are shot to death in pizza restaurants, people are killed by hand grenades they find on the street,” Akesson said in parliament on Wednesday.

“This is the new Sweden; the new, exciting dynamic, multicultural paradise that so many here in this assembly … have fought to create for so many years,” he said sarcastically.

Soros claimed nationalism has now become the “dominant ideology in the world,” taking aim at the 28-member European Union. “It’s the EU that’s the institution that’s on the verge of a breakdown,” he asserted. “And Russia is now the resurgent power, based on nationalism.”

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“Men think in herds and go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”

Some features of the result are clear: a surge in popular electoral support for populist and far-right parties; a distaste for establishment parties; a decline in the center-left and social democracy; a rise in Euroskeptism that may affect the Brexit E.U. negotiations with Britain; and above all, opposition to immigration, a conviction that may coincide with the attitude of President Donald Trump.

The largest number, and the implicit winner, is the Five Star Movement with 32%. The biggest loser is the Democratic Party, which in 2014 had 40% of the vote but was reduced to 19% in 2018.

The rise of populism results from economic and political difficulties. Italy has been troubled by a number of problems: high rate of unemployment, nationally 11% and youth 34%; low economic growth, 1.5% compared with the E.U. average of 2.4%; lack of growth in productivity; high public-sector debt; declining birth rates and a population that fell by 100,000; an aging population, with 30% over 60; and above all, the problem of immigration that brought more than 620,000 asylum-seekers to Italy in the last four years.